One of the most inspiring yoga teachers I've worked with always shared poems by Mary Oliver and John O'Donohue in her classes. She picked beautiful poems that reflected what we were working on in our yoga practice, and they wandered in my mind for days after.
I have not been able to practice in person with this teacher for many years. But I still receive her emails. Recently, I learned that she was undergoing chemotherapy for cancer. So many of my loved ones have had to manage life with cancer. Though she is no longer teaching, she continues to share poems with us online, and in that way, she continues to teach and inspire.
I am sharing her most recent poem with you. I hope it helps you find your way in dark times.
"How the Light Comes" ~by Jan Richardson.
I cannot tell you
how the light comes.
What I know
is that
it is more ancient
than imagining.
That it travels
across an astounding expanse
to reach us.
That it loves
searching out
what is hidden,
what is lost,
what is forgotten
or in peril
or in pain.
That it has a fondness
for the body,
for finding its way
toward flesh,
for tracing the edges
of form,
for shining forth
through the eye,
the hand,
the heart.
I cannot tell you
how the light comes,
but that it does.
That it will.
That it works its way
into the deepest dark
that enfolds you,
though it may seem
long ages in coming
or arrive in a shape
you did not foresee.
And so
may we this day
turn ourselves toward it.
May we lift our faces
to let it find us.
May we bend our bodies
to follow the arc it makes.
May we open
and open more
and open still
to the blessed light
that comes.
